WAITING FOR REALITY TO KICK IN

The King Arthur pub in the Paddock Ward, using UKIP beer mats.

This blog at the moment is turning into a bit of a local election diary of my campaign in the Paddock Ward in Walsall. We are now just two and a half campaigning days away from the day of reckoning on Thursday night, which is when we discover just how well – or badly, the political parties have done.

Naturally, I am hoping that the polls which are putting UKIP at level, or above the Liberal Democrats, will prove to be correct. However, as they say, the only poll that counts is the poll on election night.

Local elections are always a time of hope, we go into them as candidates knowing in reality as members of what is classed by the media as one of the smaller parties that we can buck the trends and be elected. It does happen as there are now UKIP councillors on councils all around the country, even last week UKIP had success in Eastbourne in a by-election, so it can be done although so far not yet in Walsall.

The ward I stand in is one of the safest for the local Conservative Party in Walsall, yet every year when I stand in the ward for UKIP people in the ward wish me well, tell me they will be voting for me, then come election night there are never enough votes. Some years I beat the Liberal Democrat vote, although sadly last year was not one of those years due to a disgruntled and ousted Conservative candidate standing as an independent thus splitting the vote. This year, for a change, the Walsall Tories have not upset one of their own as they often do – they can be a ruthless bunch, so it is just a four way split between Tory, Labour, Lib Dem and myself for UKIP.

Without doubt, there is something in the political air in this election. In most elections people I meet usually remain pleasant but none committal, a few say they will vote for me, but as stated it is never enough. This year however, I am getting people turning around to me unprompted and telling me I have their vote – they are so seriously fed up and had it with Cameron and his pro-EU Conservative Party. Even a couple of the local pubs in the ward are using UKIP beer mats.

For myself I am pretty sure this election is going to be one where I, as a UKIP candidate, will beat the Liberal Democrat vote, I can’t even say I have seen a leaflet from them in the Paddock Ward, but wouldn’t it be nice if the size of the UKIP vote in Paddock begins to panic the local Labour Party – we can all but hope and dream and wait for reality to kick in once the count begins on Thursday.

DEATH, FUNERALS AND ELECTIONS

UKIP activists outside Birmingham City Council House.

When you are young, as all your friends and younger members of your family are getting married and starting families you find you are invited to weddings and Christenings, you get older and have far too many grey hears on your head, that if you still have hair, the weddings and Christenings stop and death and funerals begin.

In recent times there has been too much death and too many funerals. My dear old mom passed away in December 2010, and since this last December I have attended the funerals of UKIP stalwarts Graham Booth in Torquay and more recently the funeral of Malcolm Wood in Salisbury, yesterday it was closer to my home in Walsall with the funeral of my old friend Dave Donaldson who I have known for the best part of forty years.

At the moment my life seems to consist of death, funerals and elections – even one of my cats, Danny, died recently of liver cancer and Lin and I really miss him. He is buried up the top of the garden alongside a collection of other cats and dogs who we have shared our lives with over our 39 years of married life.

Yesterday was a strange day; it started in the Longhorn pub at the bottom of our Crescent where everyone gathered for Dave’s funeral. The Longhorn was not just Dave’s second home; it was as good as an extension to his house separated only by the zebra crossing between his front door on one side of the road and the pub on the other, Dave was almost a permanent fixture in the pub.

This makes him sound like a heavy drinker, which he was not, he was someone who enjoyed the company of his friends and would make a pint last while he either chatted away or on other occasions sit and quietly digest the news in his paper.

There were a lot of people there for his funeral, he was so well liked, including the current Paddock Ward Councillor who I am standing against in the local elections, Rose Martin who is also a long time friend. Rose, her husband Jim, Dave, my wife and myself as well as many there yesterday have all known each other from the mid 1970’s as we all used to meet up for a drink and a bit of banter and a game of darts in the Longhorn in those times.

Life has moved on since then but we have all stayed in touch. Lin and I don’t go to the Longhorn as often as we used to. On nice summer evenings when I don’t have to attend a UKIP branch meeting somewhere or other we like to take a stroll down to the Longhorn with the dog and sit outside for a beer or two. We always used to see Dave and have a chat with him. He would tell us about his work as a painter and decorator, before he retired. He had lots of humorous tales to tell about the days when he worked in his father’s industrial painting business. I will miss Dave, his quiet unassuming ways and gentle humour.

My political opponent Rose gave me a hug outside Streetly crematorium. Although we stand against each other in local elections, we remain friends and I do not oppose her has a person, but for the party she represents who I feel have betrayed the country. At around the same time she became worked up about local issues in the ward, I was sereiously worried about the power and influence of the European Union, which put us both on our political paths, but paths heading in different directions.

After the funeral and beer and a bite to eat back in the Longhorn when the service was over, I headed into Birmingham to meet a number of UKIP colleagues from around the West Midlands where we were to meet a man from ITV to do an interview outside the Birmingham Council House. We all waved our ‘Vote UKIP’ placards for the camera, I did what I am sure will be a cringe making interview, if and when it is shown on the local news, and then it was back to shoving election leaflets through doors.

This was where I had the strange moment of following one letter box behind a chap who was also distributing election leaflets. It only took a glance to know who he was delivering for, he had a supermarket plastic bag full of leaflets, wearing a suit, collar and tie looking every bit like a Tory wet. “You delivering for Rose” I asked, “Yes” came the reluctant reply. I introduced myself as the UKIP candidate and said that Rose and I were old friends and had both been at a funeral of another old friend. “I gathered you were the UKIP candidate” came the stuffy reply. I tried a bit of friendly banter and also made the comment that no doubt he would join us in UKIP one day like myself and a lot of others who once supported or voted for the Conservative Party. The response was instant: “No way” and said with great distain. After getting under each other’s feet waiting in turn to shove our leaflets through the same letter boxes in turn, I crossed over the road to do a cul-de-sac and left him to it and the hopeless task of supporting a political party that is on a suicidal mission into political oblivion.

It was fitting that after my leafleting and while waiting in the corner shop to purchase my evening paper, the chap in front of me turned around and said: “I’m voting for you this time; I’ve had it with the Conservative Party”. This is a strange time for me, one of death, funerals and elections, and the death is not just of people and pets I have known and cared for, but of the Tory Party and hopefully the three party stranglehold that has driven this nation perilously close to death by membership of the European Union.

THE FOUR STAGES OF ELECTIONS

There are four stages of campaigning in elections, or there are for me. First there is the bright optimistic stage around the time my nomination papers have been accepted by the local elections office and there is everything to look forward to, and campaign for. It's the start of a new election, my nice new election addresses, which in my eyes are the best of all the candidates standing, are pristine in their boxes just waiting to be pushed through expectant letter boxes to entice all those eager voters to place their cross in the box marked Derek Bennett on their ballot papers.

During this first stage I set out with a sprightly spring in my step and as my election addresses vanish through an assortment of letter boxes, with a photo of myself looking back at me as they disappear into people's homes, I think to myself, how can they not vote for me when you look at how useless the other political parties are and the mess they have made of the nation, let alone all the shambles they have made of running our town of Walsall.

A week or two into the campaign as I continue shoving leaflets through doors, and there are still too many boxes left to distribute, I begin to wonder if this task will never end. As I go around the streets, roads and cul-de-sacs in the Paddock Ward and meet people, during this period. This is where the doubtful stage begins to kick in.

As I walk up the drives and paths of the Paddock Ward residents, for those who are out and about I give them my best smile and stop and chat to them as I hand them my election address. The one good thing with standing in the Paddock Ward in Walsall is that the vast majority of the people in the Ward are really nice people. They are polite and take my leaflet, but mostly remain non-committal. Most say: “Leave it with me, I will take a look at this later”, very few of them want to be drawn into a conversation. This leaves me feeling uncertain - how are they going to vote? I ask myself. I ponder the fact that the three main political parties have made themselves unelectable, yet no one really seems to care and I know that the Tory, Labour and Lib Dem voters will blindly go to the polls on May 3rd and like the old saying about sticking rosettes on donkeys, they will go and vote for their usual political donkey with the colour rosette that matches their brand of politics no matter the havoc that party of donkeys have wreaked on the nation and their council.

The one thing I have not experienced in Walsall this year, for the first time ever after standing in every local election in the town for the last twelve years, by-elections and four General Elections, is the frustrating comment: “I would like to vote for you but am reluctant to as I don't think you can win”. Ooo, if there is a comment that is so ridiculous it is that one; don't people actually engage their brains before opening their gobs? Of course I am not going to win if they don't vote for me, what on earth is the point of voting for someone they don't want just because they think that person can win even though they don’t support them - that way those who make such ludicrous statements will be permanently doomed to being governed by those they oppose and treat them with contempt.

With now just over a week to go to polling day, I am now entering the third stage of campaigning, the weary stage. As I go around the ward still delivering leaflets, still speaking to non-committal voters, the spring has gone from my step as I plod up and down drives, open and close far too many gates and get my fingers chobbled in vicious spring loaded letter boxes that have sharp edges and trap your fingers. After an evening of campaigning I return home, pour myself a beer and flop down next to my better half totally knackered. Sadly, there is never any sympathy, just the comment from a wife who has seen me loose far too many elections: “I don't know why you bother, it's the same every year, why don't you put this much effort into all the things that need doing in the house”. By this time my beer has gone flat and before you know it I am spark out on the sofa.

The reason I do this and stand for UKIP is because I have to; I have to care for my country, for my town of Walsall and for the place where I live. I despair when I see Cameron, Clegg and Milliband giving my nation away to the EU bit by bit and having the audacity to try to convince us it is in our interest. I groan with utter frustration when I park my car in Walsall and see more traffic wardens prowling the streets than shoppers, most of whom have all gone to other places where there is free parking and no closed down shops because a succession of councils have made a mess of things. I weep when I see a fine traditional homes being demolished to make way for a small group of tacky new houses or to be replaced by flats in my ward. It is for these as well as other things I plod the streets and put leaflets out and speak to people who can't be bothered.

Next week we hit the fourth and final stage of campaigning - the reality stage. After all that time and effort, after seeing other political parties stealing UKIP ideas, and after meeting up with our team of weary UKIP campaigners for a beer in the Lyndon House Hotel before heading off to the count, we will then see the results of all that hard work, which sadly for me has not yet resulted in our Walsall UKIP team getting any of us elected, although UKIP has had successes on local councils in other areas. The reality is we live in hope that one day the people of this great nation will awake and begin to realise the real wasted vote is the votes for the political parties that have given this nation away to foreign control, made each and everyone of us vulnerable to foreign courts and arrest warrants such as Christopher Tappin, Andrew Symeou and many others - all because those we elect have abandoned us.

One day the people will see that Britain has been made defenceless, it is at the mercy of foreign courts and our nation on the verge of extinction ready to be gobbled up into a new European Union nation called the 'United States of Europe' where democracy and the will of the people will count for very little. That is why, year after year, I go through the four stages of elections.

HOW LOW CAN IT GO

Over the weekend I read an answer to a question in the Daily Mail about a member of the Scottish National Party who it was thought was interred during World War Two due to his sympathies with the Nazis. Although I knew the SNP had been around for quite some time, I had not realised it had been founded in 1934 on the basis of what we have now, a devolved Scottish Parliament.

Thinking about how many years it has taken the SNP to get where it is today, and my own political party, the UK Independence Party (UKIP), considering it was set up in 1993, only nineteen years ago, its rise has been quite astonishing, so much so the polls are now putting UKIP above the Liberal Democrats.

Such success brings problems, when we were considered to be a minor political party and of no real threat the press just extracted the urine, there was not much accurate journalism about UKIP, its members and aims, just constant side swipes – that was if they could be bothered to report anything about UKIP.

There would be comments about UKIP members wanting to take their own town/village/hamlet out of the EU – ha, ha. This of course was silly stuff that we in UKIP had to put up with, the answer of course was yes – we did want to take our town out of the EU, which is what will happen when the nation comes to its senses and returns to full democracy and sovereignty on the inevitable day this joyous event happens. There were silly jibes about ‘little Englanders’ and ‘monetary xenophobes’ when we warned about the inevitable problems euro membership would bring – as being witnessed now across the whole of the eurozone.

Suddenly, almost without the press noticing, UKIP began to become a political threat, it was blamed for preventing the Conservative Party (if you can call it that these days) from forming a Government in 2010. The Tory press decided the best way to deal with UKIP was to ignore it and pretend it was not there. UKIP was hardly mentioned in the Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph. But UKIP has been a threat and as it becomes ever more obvious that Cameron is no Tory, or even vaguely Eurosceptic as many Conservative rank and file members were mislead to believe, the right wing press can no longer ignore UKIP anymore as the Conservative (in name only) Party is losing some high profile members to UKIP.

The writers of the right have taken the stance that to stop the UKIP advance David Cameron and his Conservative leadership need to toughen up their act and for Cameron and his lot to be more positive. However, since the news that UKIP has overtaken the Liberal Democrats in the polls, the left wing press has done what it usually does – it has turned nasty.

The Guardian, which is the journalistic home of the EU loving leftie, Polly Toynbe, has dug out some pretty spurious and ancient articles and tarted up this old news and sold it to its gullible readers as new. The Guardian has tried to make out that UKIP has been illegally using EU money to fund its own activities in the UK. It reported on various UKIP MEP’s as if they had been in trouble with OLAF in the EU Parliament. Digging the depths of political journalism the Guardian hacks even tried to implicate Graham Booth who sadly passed away last year – this must be a new low for this left wing publication.

The reason for UKIP’s, steady growth in the polls is due to the fact the electorate of this nation can see just how worthless the three, so-called, political parties have become – they realise the likes of Cameron, Clegg and Milliband cannot be trusted with the running of this country and are slowly and surely beginning to look for an alternative – which is UKIP.

The real polls are to come for UKIP, May 3rd will see for real what sort of influence and success UKIP will have in the local Council elections, 2014 will show if UKIP is capable of being the leading political party in the elections the European Union’s pretend Parliament, and 2015, if the coalition can survive full term, then UKIP could be scaring the life out of our pro-EU and complacent political classes – how nasty and underhand will the Guardian be then, how low will it be prepared to sink to stop UKIP?

REMEMBERING DAVE'S 'CAST IRON GUARANTEE

Gerard Batten, the UKIP London MEP, lambastes David Cameron for his failure to honour his 'cast iron' guarantee of a referendum on the disastrous Lisbon Treaty, just as he has failed with most of his other election promises too.

THE MAGIC MUSHROOM

Walsall is one of those towns where a person passing through may not think much of, it can’t really be described as outstanding, although it has things that are worthy of merit. It has an architecturally pleasing Council House from the days when we had ‘municipal pride’, it has some pretty decent pubs selling some rather nice real ales – not least my favourite, the Lyndon House Hotel. It also has the Walsall Arboretum which is undergoing some upgrading, this is really fine park – it also has the Yam Yam.

‘Wotsa Yam Yam?’, you may ask. This is a brilliant local website that links to news items and blogs from around our little Black Country town where all sorts of gossip and news can be gleaned. The Yam Yam, which is a term used to describe the local accent, often links to this blog when I give mention to my home town, as well as blogs run by other political groups and activists from the three troubled main political parties.

One of those regular bloggers the Yam Yam links to is the ‘Mushroom’, who the other day made the rash and inaccurate statement: “barking mad Ukip whose answer to everything is to return to before 1973 when the UK joined the Common Market and Jimmy Osmond was No1 with ‘Long Haired Lover from Liverpool’”. Hmm.

Why is UKIP considered as “barking mad”, “Fruitcakes” and all the other insults that are slung its way simply because it strongly believes in democracy and our sovereign right to govern ourselves, when the real “barking mad” politicians in the Liberal Democrats, Labour and Tory parties have abandoned these principles and are quite happy to govern as instructed by the European Union which the British electorate has no democratic control over? What makes them to be considered sane when they are happy to give £billions of British taxpayers money to what is known as a corrupt and spendthrift organisation, even though the country is in debt up to its eyes. Surely the sane option would be to call it a day and keep the dosh in our coffers where it can be used for the benefit of the people whose money it is.

Why too is wanting to leave the EU a step back to the 1970’s, even though the original concept for a United Federal Europe, where its nations cease to exist individually, is the end game as far as the EU is concerned even though it was a concept dreamt up as far back as the 1920’s by such groups as the European Union of Federalists (read Christopher Booker and Richard North’s book, the Great Deception) is seen as the future? There is little logic in wanting to tether the UK to the European Union which is based on a concept that is ninety years past its sell by date.

Who is really stuck in the past, UKIP and those of us who have awoken to the very real dangers of membership of the European Union, who are consistently proven correct as we have been over the collapse of the EU’s euro, or those who continually support EU membership?

If the Mushroom thinks UKIP is barking, then the only conclusion can be the other three political parties are certifiable and their politicians confined in padded cells. Maybe the Mushroom has been on the magic mushrooms, or has become to believe in the old mushroom growers rules – keep ‘em in the dark and feed ‘em sh@*.

IRISH CONSTITUTIONAL CHALLENGE

Legal proceedings have been initiated by Thomas Pringle T.D., Independent Irish Member of Parliament for Donegal South-West, challenging the Irish Government on fundamental aspects of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) Treaty and the Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union (Fiscal Compact) Treaty

Pringle stated that he is "of the opinion that both treaties raise serious legal difficulties both at the
level of EU treaty law and Irish Constitutional law.”Stating “my primary democratic concern as both a citizen and as an elected public representative is the integrity of the Irish Constitution and the EU
treaties which now form such an important part of our constitutional framework. I believe that the matters that I seek the clarification and assistance of the Court on are of crucial importance not only for the citizens of this country but for the future of the EU.”Of special concern to him are the implications under the terms of the ESM Treaty of a new permanent €700 billion bailout fund called the European Stability Mechanism to be set up with power to call on Ireland (at a time of that institution’s choosing) to make capital contributions of up to €11,145,400,00 in various forms of capital. "In this country’s case, this is the equivalent to approximately one-third of Government
Tax Revenue for 2011.

This figure can be increased at the sole behest of the ESM at any time in the future and with no limit set in the treaty as to what may be sought from Member States in the future."In effect this Stability Mechanism can direct the State to raise sovereign debt, give the money so raised to it and can then decide, where, when, whether and how it is to be spent."Therefore Ireland will not have power to control decisions regarding the use of funds raised by it."Implications - What if a majority of voters in the May referendum on the Fiscal Compact Treaty vote in favour of imposing permanent austerity rules on the country in order to get access to a proposed permanent Eurozone loan fund only to discover that the treaty to establish that fund is illegal under EU law and unconstitutional in Ireland and may never in fact come into force?Pringle said "On the 9th March last I wrote to Irish Taoiseach Mr Enda Kenny, the Minister for Finance and the Minister for Foreign Affairs detailing some of these
very serious concerns.

To date I have received no reply to this correspondence beyond the usual standard acknowledgement of receipt of the communication. I have now been left with no other option but to take this course of action.”Summary of the Case"I am asking the Court to examine the legality of the amendment of Article 136 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) before any further action is taken by Government to approve that amendment. That amendment is being adopted under a so-called 'simplified revision procedure' of the EU treaties which I believe is legally wrong. The changes being proposed are so fundamental that they should go through the 'ordinary treaty revision procedure' to ensure proper democratic scrutiny. They also require the approval of the Irish people."I am also asking the Court to consider whether the ESM Treaty is in breach of existing EU treaty principles which have been approved by the Irish people in previous referendums and which are now therefore part of our law."In addition I am asking the Court to decide whether the State can ratify the Treaty Establishing the European Stability Mechanism without first having the approval of the people in a referendum."The Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary
Union signed on 2nd March 2012 is intertwined with the ESM Treaty.

They each depend on the other."If I am right in my belief that the ESM Treaty is unlawful, then there is in my opinion a question over the validity of the Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union."Timing & Positioning Q & A Pringle states that he appreciates and welcomes the Irish Government’s decision to submit the issue of the Fiscal Treaty to the people by way of referendum", but he "has concerns that due to the intense pressures on Government at this time, the need to put the amendment to the EU treaties and the ESM Treaty to a referendum may not yet have been fully scrutinised. In order to assist in that scrutiny, he is seeking particular judicial review in these proceedings.”

MAKING A PIGS EAR OF IT

British pig producers will find it harder it earn their bacon thanks to new EU regulations and the matter of a millimetre.

West Midlands MEP Mike Nattrass and a pig farmer from Staffordshire have hit out at interfering Eurocrats in Brussels who are making a pig’s ear of things again through the introduction of new EU rules which will cost the British pig industry millions of pounds.

Sixty-eight-year-old Richard Beddall, who is a pig farmer based in Newcastle-under-Lyme, and UKIP MEP Mike Nattrass have attacked a new EU directive which will require pig producers to reduce the gap in slatted floors by a single millimetre (from 19mm to 18mm).

The rules, which are due to come into force in January, will cost British farmers around £28 million as they will be forced to make expensive alterations to their pig sheds to comply with the regulations.

Commenting on this latest slurry to come out of Brussels , Mr Nattrass said: “You just could not make it up. The EU wants British pig producers to fork out millions of pounds on these expensive upgrades when at the same time the European Union stubbornly insists that we should prop up the crisis-hit economies of Eurozone PIGS (Portugal , Ireland , Greece and Spain ).

“At the end of the day the British pig industry is facing a multi-million pound bill all for a millimetre. Bacon rind is thicker than that. Mr Beddall himself would be forced to spend thousands on his buildings to comply with these rules.

“Mr Beddall cares for his animals. As he says, happy animals will thrive, grow and make you money.

“These latest rules from the Brussels legislation sausage machine will decimate the British pig industry.

“Farmers will be forced out of business and more meat will have to be imported from abroad. So much for food miles. Giving the EU a millimetre will cost our pig industry millions of pounds.

“We should make our own laws and regulations in Westminster . Farmers just want to farm and earn a living but their time is being increasingly consumed by ever-increasing red tape.”

Mr Nattrass added: “The EU is sow-ing the seeds of discontent.”

Mr Beddall, who has been a full-time farmer for more than 50 years, said: “The regulations are being changed all of the time and these latest EU regulations are really going to do some damage. I have had to hire a consultant to deal with all the forms and paperwork.

“I am going to retire at the end of the year. It would cost thousands of pounds to alter all of my buildings to comply with the new EU regulations which come into force on January 1 next year.

“There is just ever increasing bureaucracy and nonsense. It’s infantile. From January the gap will have to be reduced from 19mm to 18mm. This will cost the industry millions of pounds. I have spoken to farmers who just say to comply will cost them too much money. It is a major job to install these slats.

“Up will go prices and out will go pig producers. On the industry’s tombstone it would be written ‘here lies the British pig industry, destroyed by the EU’.”

NOT ONE PENNY MORE

Nigel Farage, the leader of UKIP strikes again in the heart of the evil EU empire and exposes the madness of the EU's vanity currency and predicts its demise.

LEFT WITH A STENCH

Dave, my old pal of very many years, at one time owned a dog with the rather nice name of ‘Tinker’. The dog, like Dave, was a bit of a handful and like his master was a happy go lucky soul. I don’t know how it started, but one day one of Dave’s drinking pals in the pub started calling the dog ‘Stinker’ instead of ‘Tinker’, which within a matter of weeks became ‘Stench’, a the name the poor dog lived with for the rest of its life.

One day Dave left Stench in the garden while he popped next door, the dog, not knowing where his master had gone managed to get out and went to the most obvious place – the pub. He managed to cross a very busy road and trotted along to the pub where he turned up and presented himself to Dave’s drinking pals. They all said hello to Stench and looked around for Dave, who by this time was wondering where the hell his dog had gone. It was a few hours later when one of Dave’s slightly worse for the drink chums turned up with Stench and said the dog had really enjoyed his afternoon in the boozer. He had been helping the pub’s clientele to eat their pork scratching and packets of crisps and had a really good time of it while Dave had been worrying about the loss of his dog.

The situation with another Dave, the one with Cameron after his name, reminds me a bit of that day when Stench went missing, Cameron is in danger of finding himself in the same position wondering where his natural Tory supporters have gone as many are beginning to look at the UK Independence Party as a possible new political home since Dave Cameron has taken to abandoning all Tory principles.

There is now speculation that some younger Tory MPs may well head UKIP’s way which will, no doubt, give Dave a real scare if they do. One of those speculated to be heading UKIP’s way was the Conservative MP Nadine Dorries, who has denied any such intention, but has written on the Conservative Home blog that UKIP’s policies are now looking more Conservative than those being peddled by Dave.

My old pal Dave eventually got his dog back, but what about Dave Cameron? If he continues to alienate his natural Tory support there will be no one to bring them back, he too will be left with a stench.

LOCAL ELECTION TIME

Derek Bennett and Liz Hazell campaigning to save Walsall market.

All around the country it is local election time in many towns and cities, hopeful candidates for all political parties are out an about delivering leaflets, meeting people and desperately hoping they will be elected on the 3rd May. Looking at the recent polls a lot of those candidates in the pro-EU LIB, Lab, Con parties won’t be too happy or confident at the moment.

At long last it seems the electorate are beginning to see through them and are casting around for a new home for their votes and UKIP looks like a cosy option. As a UKIP candidate in the Walsall Paddock Ward myself the news that we are now showing around 7 per cent in the polls is good news, the Mail on Sunday has even shown UKIP as high as 11 per cent putting us above the pointless Liberal Democrats.

The fact that as one of those candidates now busy with my other Walsall UKIP colleagues trying to save Walsall market and campaigning on other local issues, and am now busy shoving leaflets through letter boxes, mans there has been little time to give to this blog, hence my neglect over the last week.

Had I had time to report over this last week then the BBC would have been in line for some criticism, especially now UKIP is rising in the polls. The reason for my ire regarding the BBC is due to the shameful way the BBC 2 Newsnight programme ignored Lawrence Webb, our UKIP London Mayoral candidate when it held its Mayors debate, but invited the Green Mayoral candidate to debate alongside Boris Johnson and Ken Livingstone - this was despite the fact that in London UKIP constantly outperforms the Greens in elections.

This is obvious bias by the BBC as the Greens are the BBC’s preferred party as they are not anti-EU and support the BBC’s green agenda. On the 3rd May the BBC will not be able to ignore UKIP as it stands more than a good chance of taking more votes than the Liberal Democrats. Local election time is going to be interesting this year.

COMMEMORATING A TRAITOR

If you are rich enough to pay the rather pricey entrance fee which is now levied on all those who want to visit the historical Westminster Abbey, you will find in there as you wander around this magnificent building which has played a major role in the history of this land, statues, plaques and all sorts of memorabilia to the great and the good going back several centuries.

So, how would you feel, after paying £16 to go in, you stumbled across a plaque to commemorate Guy Burgess, Lord Haw Haw or one of the many others who have betrayed this country over the years? I ask this question as George West of the Campaign for an Independent Britain, has recently been notifying people that there are moves ahead for the traitor Ted Heath, who was the Prime Minister who gave this nation away to a foreign power by forcing through the 1972 European Communities Act, to be commemorated in the Abbey with a plaque.

In his e-mail George wrote: “Your help is needed urgently to stop an unacceptable and undeserved memorial to Edward Heath

“There is a proposal for a memorial to Edward Heath to be placed in Westminster Abbey possibly in the form of a plaque set in the floor.

“Help prevent the Abbey from being sullied

“Heath betrayed the people of the United Kingdom by his deceit, taking us into the “Common Market” now the European Union. “

If you want to put a stop to this further betrayal against the British people then please write stating your objections to : The Right Reverend Dr. John Hall, Dean of Westminster, The Chapter Office, 20 Dean’s Yard, Westminster Abbey, London SW 1P 3PA.

YOU ARE ABOUT TO BE MONITORED FOR READING THIS BLOG

There is something both creepy and deeply worrying about the coalition Government’s new plans for spying on the people of the UK. They want to monitor where all e-mails are being sent, from who to whom, all the blogs and web-sites we read and calls we make.

Although the contents of our e-mails will not be read, unless a warrant to read them is issued by a court, the state will be watching each and every one of us and monitoring who we are in contact with – there is something frighteningly Orwellian about this proposal, which will give a massive amount of power to MI5.

The campaigning organisation, NO2ID, has put out a press release in which they state: “So much for civil liberties - coalition puts “a bug in every living room”

They warn that the government plans to force internet service providers to keep records of all browsing, email, gaming and chat use, and to make those records available to the authorities. It is now revealed the plan is to go further and allow real time snooping by the intelligence services. It will take place without a warrant, as most official surveillance already does.

NO2ID has previously pointed out that this scheme is “leapfrogging China” and will ensure Britain remains the most watched society on earth.

The coalition government appears to have reversed its position on privacy against the database state. This news follows a little-reported announcement by Francis Maude that the coalition will ‘look again’ at broad data-sharing powers for government bodies abandoned by Jack Straw in 2009. Those plans would have allowed ministers to set aside confidentiality whenever it was convenient to them to use any information held about members of the public for new purposes.

Guy Herbert, General Secretary of NO2ID said: “Astonishing brass neck from the Home Office, attempting to feed us reheated leftovers from the authoritarian end of the Blair administration. It is not very far from a bug in every living room that can be turned on and turned off at official whim. Whatever you are doing online, whoever you are in contact with, you will never know when you are being watched. And nobody else will either, because none of it will need a warrant.

“Put aside privacy - and the government has - the scheme is an astonishing waste of money. What problem does it solve that is worth billions?”

However, as always when there is draconian and unpleasant moves ahead, the EU is lurking somewhere in the background, as Richard North on the informative EU Referendum blog points out, including the actual EU directive which is the very reason the coalition has begun this course of state snooping. As Richard states on his blog: “Now this may be a coincidence, but don't we have a Data Retention Directive, otherwise known as Directive 2006/24/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 March 2006?”

As the EU inevitably becomes more loathed, as it digs a hole deeper and deeper for itself as the collapsing euro creates poverty and fiscal disaster for millions, it will also become more neurotic than it already is and will want to monitor everyone in its paranoia – and our Government is helping the EU to take control of our lives.

So much so for the hypocritical and disgraceful Liberal Democrats who supported NO2ID against the imposition if ID cards and its campaign to retain our personal freedom. When it comes to the supporting its EU, as far as the Labour, Tories and Liberal Democrats go, all principals and election promises go out of the window.

Soon this blog will carry a warning, ‘You are about to be monitored for reading this blog.